Fall 2011 Visit : Report #5

Report #5 For Sunday Oct.23 to Wednesday 26th

We were up in good time to head for Lviv for the morning meetings and got away with 6 others in the van. The weather was dry and the views of the trees in the fall are spectacular. The rolling countryside is very beautiful in Ukraine, if only the roads were as beautiful!

There were a nice number to Break Bread and Edmund gave ministry afterwards. I told you a week ago about a young man who Volodia and I spoke to after meeting. The good news is that he got saved last Thursday and seems very happy and satisfied.

After a good lunch we headed back to Ivano with Howard on board. We were in good time for meeting when Both Howard and I spoke. Dan said he needs a rest now that we are here. There were a good number out and we were encouraged.

On Monday we had to make an early start to get to Verhovina on the Romanian border. It is an almost 3 hour trip through the mountains. Thankfully the road is quite good, mainly because it is the main road to the ski area. Verhovina is the other side of the mountains in the valley. The main reason for going was to look into a project we would like to accomplish for the 200 plus students, by putting in some washrooms.
We met with Oxana the Director and discussed what had been done so far with the washrooms. We found out that the first quote was by a contractor to build an addition to the school and install the washrooms. Now things had changed, as they found two store rooms that can be converted to washrooms without the expense of building.
We looked at and measured the rooms and will now seek out our own contractor to give us a price for the new arrangement.
We were very weary when we arrived home from the 3 hour trip there and 3 hours back.

Tuesday was mainly a day of shopping for medications, sorting out other stuff, preparing for the conference in Lviv on the week-end.
We had the meeting at 5pm with a good crowd of about 22 or so. We had several of our people come in early to fit shoes from a box that Flo gave us. They seemed very happy.

Wednesday, today we spent visiting 3 families in town as school is out all this week in this area and so there is no point visiting schools. We visited one family who are very poor but come to our meetings. The grandfather is very deaf due to being bombed in the war and the noise permanently damaging his hearing. They insisted in feeding us, even though we asked them not to bother. We were able to explain the 2-roads chart more clearly to them but they are all a little hard of hearing.

We then visited Oxana, a single woman who is really saved but has to look after her ailing mother and father. We had a good talk and she wants to come to the conference on the week-end.

Then we visited a lady for the first time named Antonina. She started coming to the meetings quite recently. This is her story. Her husband recently took 3 heart attacks and died. They had 2 sons born to them. The one was married and had one little girl. His wife went to Italy to work and then decided to stay and leave him to look after their daughter.
He was then attacked and killed in this city. In the mean time, the mother came back and hired a nanny to look after the girl, who was about 10 then.
Antonina’s other younger son tried to get the girl back while she was here in Ivano but was arrested and charged with something and is now in jail and has been for 2 years. They think the police were paid off to lay false charges by the mother.
The girl has now vanished and is thought to be in Italy.
How much can some people bear. We had a wonderful opportunity to present the love of God to her and she seemed most receptive. Please pray for her conversion.

All for now.
Please pray for us and the upcoming conference on Friday evening and Saturday.